


Hanging out with birds

by fish_wifey



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Gen, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-06
Updated: 2015-09-06
Packaged: 2018-04-15 05:40:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4594938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fish_wifey/pseuds/fish_wifey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After graduation from Karasuno and leaving Miyagi to study in Kyoto, Sugawara and Kiyoko are now college students. </p><p>Simple fic with just them having fun and spending time together, exploring the city on walks and buying animals uvu</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hanging out with birds

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kaiosea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaiosea/gifts).



> 10 weeks late with Starbucks! I'm so sorry, I actually had this fic ready during the exchange, but then waited for a beta to read it (who, like me, forgot about it ;v;)
> 
> Its short too.. I hope you still like it! I had tons of fun letting these two stroll around and talk about all sorts of things -v- I think i crossed most of your wishlist off, even if its super vague ;v;

He sees her from afar after departing Sanjo station exit no. 1 to the Sanjo-dori street. As is Kiyoko’s guarding mechanism, she has her eyes on her phone, not making eye contact as young families and free students walk past her. Koushi puts his hands in his pockets, the warm summery breeze of the gorgeous Sunday tickles his neck. Kiyoko’s chin-length hair whips up when it blows her way.

Koushi has known Kiyoko’s hair not to be absolutely impeccable at one single moment in their lives. It involved an annual reunion in Miyagi, combined with a ‘one year to legal drinking age; let's watch Tanaka and Nishinoya die!’ The next day, and to his eyes alone, he had seen Kiyoko come out of the bathroom, half asleep. She hadn’t undressed the night before, and her clothes had been all crinkly. On top, the most noticeable dishevelment had been her hair; after cutting it, she had told Koushi a few times that she now knew how boys with hair like this felt when they woke up in the mornings. And true enough, Koushi saw bits and pieces of himself in the bangs that stood in every direction. 

In the present, Kiyoko’s hair and clothes were all in order. She wore a chiffon blouse and chino trousers, flat Oxford shoes beneath. Upon entering university, and taking Koushi on a lot of shopping trips, Koushi had come to learn a thing or two about women’s fashions (while she also kept him up to date with her Women’s Studies program). He knew of Kiyoko’s silent enjoyment of buying new things and wearing them. As such, he tried to dress well too, and not look second-rate next to his friend. 

Noticing his presence, Kiyoko’s face looks up and she greets him with a smile. Putting her large phone in her bag, she turns around and lifts two paper cups from the bench beside her. While Koushi would only buy Kiyoko the black coffee, two sugar she preferred, taking a cup from her hands always came with a pleasant surprise. Once they turned 18 and moved to Kyoto, Kiyoko had found out that there’s a special solace to be found in the black magic. A taste too bitter for Koushi (even with four sugar cubes), Kiyoko made Koushi taste all the different sorts of coffees she’d find, and add weird syrups to his cup whenever the café offered it. It became more amusing the weirder the combinations of coffee, milk, and sugary ingredients got. 

“This tastes like white café mocha...and matcha!? Kiyoko, why?”

“Its good for you health.” Sipping her own cup, her hand motions at him to try another sip. Upon the second taste, there was another, undefinable ingredient present. He couldn’t guess it, as much as he tries to take sips and burn his mouth. They start walking away from the corner near the river (their meeting places differed from time and place, but the involvement of corners became an accidental habit, as Kyoto offers a lot of squares). Crossing the bridge leading across the famous Kamo river, Koushi has trouble with his cup. For the life of him, Koushi couldn’t define the sweet aftertaste he gets after each swallow. Kiyoko takes pity seeing his face rising in confusement.

“Strawberry syrup. I’ve been told that they never haven’t heard of that combination. The syrup is usually used in another cream frappuccino, no coffee.” Her face lights up at her new disastrous mix. 

“Please, do not ever order coffee and this strawberry stuff for me, Kiyoko.” Koushi’s face distorts the emptier his cup becomes, as most of the syrup lingers at the bottom. He tries to make her taste it too, but she refuses. Instead, her fingers tip his cup from beneath, insisting he drinks it all. 

They move to the north (and Koushi sees the cafe where Kiyoko bought their coffee) and then west again, passing the Honnō-ji. The temple brings Kiyoko a morbid idea. “If you do not finish that drink, I’ll be the general Akechi Mitsuhide to your Oda Nobunaga.”

The site of that historical incident in his peripheral vision, Koushi’s eyes squint. It is no question that there would be nothing as deadly as a suicide involved in Kiyoko’s plans, but it's better not to try and extort any other idea coming from her mind. Koushi drinks the rest of the ‘coffee’. They walk past the temple without entering, as their list of temples and shrines is endless, and they have other things on today’s to do list (including a shrine). 

On their way to an address Koushi has saved on his phone (and which gps he checks to make sure they’re on the right track), he asks about Kiyoko’s latest Wander Vogel outing. Kiyoko digs in her bag for her camera, showing pictures as they walk on the straight street line. 

The Wander Vogel circle at Kyoto university does small and big hiking tours. Kiyoko’s main reason to join that extracurricular circle becomes apparent once again when Koushi bows over the many bird pictures she took. He listens to her cute excitement as she explains how she listened to their call as described in a book called ‘Kyoto’s birds’, and how they didn’t fly away when they heard her camera. 

To stay on topic of hiking trips, and to take Kiyoko’s attention away from the route they were taking, Koushi starts to discuss another big trip they plan to do together. There’s a saying that you have to climb Fujisan at least once in your life. The plan had been suggested in the LINE groups chat; climb Fujisan, camp at the top, and watch the most beautiful sunrise the next morning. 

After suggesting to do so to the group they have with the previous Karasuno third and second years, Daichi, Tanaka, Nishinoya and Ennoshita have sounded excited to join. Kinoshita didn’t know it yet, and Narita said he wouldn’t want to climb any mountain. (They all joked how they didn’t invite Asahi, as he would be too chicken shit for anything). 

“He sounds both let down that we’re still thinking he’s weak-hearted, and happy that we’re not making him go with us.” Koushi laughs at Asahi’s belated reaction, indignation filling the screen while under the lead of Ennoshita, the chat gets spammed with laughter kaomoji’s. Nishinoya’s blunt remarks come in between, saying Asahi has no power to hike through like they would. Alike Kiyoko, Tanaka and Nishinoya had taken a liking to wander in woods and climb mountains, although their trips were much more adventurous. The groups chat was full with amazing pictures, which sometimes scared Koushi a little. Kiyoko’s replies to those pictures are usually stickers, some sarcastic and others endearing. Koushi enables her sticker collections by giving her LINE coins whenever he has spare. 

“Asahi-san cannot believe we forgot how he got scared in a dark forest. Let alone we take him to sleep in one.” Kiyoko throws her cup away, scrolling up the chat. “Have you called Yamaguchi-kun? Our kouhai are oddly quiet.”

“Yes, I called him. Know what he said?” Koushi tried putting one of his bangs up to resemble an ahoge, but it fell flat on his head. He then held the hair up himself, looking away from Kiyoko, into the distance. His voice deepened to liken Yamaguchi’s, who had grown taller the last time he’d seen him. “‘We don’t have time to wander around, Suga-senpai. We’re busy winning matches.’ He said that to me with the _straighest_ and most serious tone.”

Kiyoko laughs at the impression when Koushi drops his hair and sighs at the vanishing cuteness of their kouhai. “He sounds even more confident than in his second year, Yamaguchi does. Apparently he and Kageyama have decided to hold block and receive competitions. Whoever gets the most of the four, wins. Losers have to treat them at least a week on food and drinks. Can you believe that!?” 

“They’ve been competitive with each other from the start, haven’t they? Hinata-kun pulled them to do so, and even got Tsukishima-kun to enjoy himself become better. They only want to make Karasuno proud and keep it a strong school.” Kiyoko muses, eyes drifting to street signs. She doesn’t ask Koushi where they are headed to. “Its just too bad they won’t come. Yamaguchi-kun and Tsukishima-kun know a lot about nature.”

“Yeah. Maybe we have to postpone it after the Miyagi preliminaries. If we can get them out of training during the summer.” Koushi slumps his shoulders, just imagining the hard work the current third years put into the club. “Hitoka-chan is just as bad, though! She mailed me last week with a training menu that looked even worse than what we suffered under coach Ukai senior. It starts at 6 am!” 

Kiyoko laughs rings in the street, and she tries to mute it by holding a hand in front of her mouth. Koushi’s hands went up in the air, exclaiming “6 am! ‘Do you think that’s early enough, Sugawara-senpai?’ I nearly fell out of my seat.”

“Hitoka-chan cannot help it. She is just as much into it as her four players.” Once Kiyoko is done bending over to laugh, she looks around her once more. “To change the subject, where are we going? I thought we’d visit the Heian shrine, but that’s the other way.” 

Grinning, Koushi rounds a corner and waves to a sign saying pet store. Kiyoko isn’t allowed to have pets in her campus building. He explains his idea to buy birds and keep them in his apartment, so they can share custody over it together, whenever Kiyoko has time to visit him. Kiyoko’s enjoyment shows at the speed she crosses the street to enter the store, Koushi having to skip after her and keep pace. 

Upon entering, she makes a straight line to the chirping birds in the back of the store, almost failing to greet the clerk. Koushi lets her decide which ones she likes. She chooses two Peach-faced lovebirds. They pay for them, each one bird, and decide on cages (a big one and a small one to travel), playthings, and other necessities. After they’re in the cage, Kiyoko takes a picture, sending it both to the groups chat, and personally to Hitoka, Tsukishima, and Yamaguchi (not waiting for a reply). 

Outside the store, Koushi carries the birds in their cage, while Kiyoko carries the supplies. They walk back to a station near, and take the Tozai line to Higashiyama station. All the way, Kiyoko interacts to the groups chat with stickers, while Koushi looks over her shoulder. The birds’ first train ride goes well, but they tweet happily once Kiyoko and Koushi exit the station

“What should we name them?” Koushi asks, as they return to the street, on the route to their original destination. 

Kiyoko’s English pronunciation is perfect. “East and West. The rosy-yellow one is West, and the rosy-green one is East.” As if the naming activated the personalities of the people they were named after, the tiny West starts to chirp around, all hyper, while East, who is bigger, stays at one corner and looks around in fright. Koushi smiles, snorting at the resemblances. 

Walking alongside the artificial canal, the birds don’t calm down until the time their owners reach the waterside of Okazaki park. Crossing the bridge, Kiyoko asks if he wants to go through there on their way to the shrine, but Koushi stops short. Squinting, he points at a museum standing further away. 

“Was this always here?”

Kiyoko stops short, looking past him. Another breeze blows through her hair, this time from the back, disrupting her perfect cut a little. She pushes her hair behind her ears before answering. “The Municipal Museum of Art? Yes, I’ve been there with two girls and our senpai.”

“Hmm.” Koushi takes his phone, adding the museum to his private list. As he types, he looks at Kiyoko. Her focus is at their new pet birds, and her finger plays at the cage to get East’s attention. “It's worth a trip, yeah?” 

“You can visit it when we’re done in the shrine, and I take the birds to your place.” Kiyoko says it without shame. In their first month here in Kyoto, they had exchanged second keys which each other, just in case one would get lost. Although Kiyoko wouldn’t enter his apartment without a call or a knock first, Koushi had told her a few times it would be cool with him.

“Hah, you want to ditch me for West and East hm?” He lifts the cage to look at the birds. West chirps around and looks at him, while East is facing the other way. “You two are lucky! But I cannot blame you, Kiyoko.”

“How would you, I am blameless.” Her face softens for a smile, and they enter the shrine. Koushi bumps her shoulder, and has to dodge a finger flick aimed to his head.


End file.
